General construction and wood working projects require a wide variety of power tools to accomplish the job properly. Two (2) such common power tools are the power drill and the power screw gun. The ability for the drill to produce a hole in just about any material and the screw gun's ability to quickly install fasteners make them very valuable for a wide range of repetitive tasks, saving time and money and reducing stress on the worker.
Due to the cost of these tools and the fact that they have similar physical parameters, many users find it prudent to own only a power drill and then to use the drill in a manner similar to a screw gun as needed. When the capabilities of a screw gun are needed, the user simply inserts an appropriate screwdriver bit or socket adapter into the chuck of the drill.
Various attempts have been made to provide adapters for drill guns. Examples of these attempts can be seen by reference to several U.S. patents including U.S. Pat. No. 3,484,114, U.S. Pat. No. 5,090,545, U.S. Pat. No. 5,191,666, U.S. Pat. No. 5,330,206, and U.S. Pat. No. 5,409,333.
The use of such adapters can be unfavorable due to the fact that it must be repeated and reversed each time the user wishes to switch between the drill functions and the functions provided by the adapter. In certain cases where the adapter is to be utilized infrequently and where a range of functionality or sizing is desirable, this may acceptable.
However, construction practices which require drilling a hole, inserting a fastener, and then drilling another hole, will require the removal of the drill bit or fastening driver for each and every hole, thus becoming very time consuming. Furthermore, in many construction projects, these fasteners are of a consistent size over large areas of the construction. In this case, the need to constantly interchange the drill bits and adapters is very detrimental, i.e. as compared to having both a drill and a screw gun.
Accordingly, there exists a need for an adapter which is smaller and cheaper than having to purchase a screw gun in addition to a drill, but which facilitates repeated use in a quick and minimally taxing manner. The development of the present invention substantially departs from the conventional solutions and in doing so fulfills this need.